2. Historic Parallels

The complexity and scale of Brexit has few, if any, historical parallels. A good comparison may be the enactment of the 1534 Act of Supremacy which broke England’s links to Rome and established Henry the Eighth as the Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England. A more appropriate metaphor is the story of the exodos of the Israelites out of Egypt. 3,000 years ago, 600 thousand Israelites decided to leave Egypt and the rule of the Pharaohs. In 2016 the British people decided to do a comparable thing by choosing to leave the EU. In both cases the People decided to leave a larger ‘empire’ and to become independent nation states. They prioritized their own identity, beliefs and history over the benefits that they had when they lived as part of a greater political entity. They wished to be free to, among other things, establish their own laws, form their own trade agreements and control their own borders. In both situations, their departure was a collective act of ‘faith’. The Israelites did not have an easy time of it establishing their promised land; they spent the next 40 years wandering around in the wilderness.

There is a very real risk that ‘post-Brexit’, the UK could find itself in an economic wilderness that the British people might have to endure for several decades. Should this turn out to be the situation, then the IOM’s £1m Budget’s Brexit Contingency Fund will turn out to be little more than a packed lunch.